The following article appeared in the February 1 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
Wyndham House is getting all the money the United Way of Guelph and Wellington used to spend on Change Now.
That more than doubles the amount of cash the shelter is getting from the United Way — from $100,000 to $254,000.
The money will go to providing more services to Guelph’s youth.
It’s another twist in the complicated set of circumstances surrounding the unexpected closure of the Change Now emergency youth shelter last summer.
The United Way and Wellington County headed an effort to open a new shelter. But the only application they got was from Wyndham House, and the price tag associated with it was bigger than what the agency had been giving to Change Now.
So the United Way announced it could not afford to open a new shelter, but gave the money to Wyndham House to augment its program.
Despite the reallocation of the cash, there’s still frustration about the lack of youth services in the city.
Sarah Haanstra, who works in social planning for the United Way, said the need for a youth shelter and services is Guelph’s biggest poverty-related issue.
Roya Rabbani, who sat briefly on Change Now’s board and headed a committee to figure out how to replace the closed shelter, said those who want to help youth in Guelph need to work together — something that hasn’t been happening.
“There was no voice of unity, just finger-pointing,” she said. “We need unity when we have a population that is in so much need.”
She said heading the committee took her a day a week in the summer, and she’s frustrated little has come from that work.
“My hope is people will come together without any kind of personal agenda, regardless of who did what when,” she said. “It was the amount of blame that I said ‘Enough (is) enough. I can’t work anymore.’ This is too much blaming, too much confrontation, too much agendas.”
But she found the youth to be united and realistic about what they need.
“I hope people will forget about all of their own views and be united around an issue, which the task force did for a short time,” she said.
In the meantime, the city is close to opening a new emergency shelter, according to Councillor Ian Findlay, who is part of a new city group focusing on the needs of children and youth.
“We’re getting closer to having a facility and it may be with Wyndham House,” he said.
The city group is focusing on the needs of youth in general, aiming to include them in the city’s decision-making.
“When we’re planning a new park, the youth who are going to be big users will be consulted,” Findlay said.
They’re also looking at things like planning transit in a way that’s useful for youth.
“If you just plan everything around a healthy adult, you miss some nuances,” he said.
No one from Wyndham House was available yesterday to say how the new money is being spent, though the shelter has recently added four beds. Repeated phone calls to Wyndham House representatives went unreturned this week. Change Now was an emergency shelter, while Wyndham House is largely a long-term shelter, offering only a few emergency beds.
Wellington County staff will report later this month how much it would cost for the city and the county, with help from the province, to fund a shelter.
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Clarification
Guelph Councillor Ian Findlay says he has no direct knowledge of the city being close to opening a youth emergency shelter or whether such a shelter might be connected to Wyndham House. Information published in a page A1 story Monday led some readers to conclude otherwise.